Problem with gif files – locked background layer

Q. I have a .gif file that I’m trying to drag onto another document in Photoshop but the image won’t copy across as normal. I’ve tried to unlock the layer but the padlock is greyed out and I can’t unlock the layer by double clicking it either.

A. If you open the gif file and go to Image > Mode you will see that the process of saving the file as a gif has changed the format to indexed color. To free the file, so that you can drag it into a different document you will need to change the Mode from Indexed Colour back to RGB. To do this go to the top menu, select Image > Mode and select RGB Colour.